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Draft:Roberto Verzola

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Roberto "Obet" Verzola was an activist, author, and electrical engineer (November 1952 — May 6, 2020). He is known as the "father of Philippine email" for setting up email and internet connections in the Philippines in 1992.[1] He authored the books "Towards a Political Economy of Information: Studies on the Information Economy" (2004)[2] and "Crossing Over: The Energy Transition to Renewable City" (2015)[3] His works spanned across human rights, electoral reform, intellectual property rights, agriculture and genetic engineering, and renewable energy.[4]

Education

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Verzola graduated from the Philippine Science High School in 1969 and studied electrical engineering at the University of the Philippines Diliman. There, he was an associate editor for The Philippine Collegian and later taught as a lecturer at the UP Diliman Institute of Mathematics between 2009—2017.[5][6][7]

In 2008, he was one of two of the first civil society practitioners from the Global South to become an Academic Visitor at the Oxford Internet Institute.[8]

Activism

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Verzola was an activist who survived incarceration and torture during the Martial Law period, during which he joined the underground movement and wrote for Taliba ng Bayan, a publication of the National Democratic Front.[9] He ran a blog entitled "Ecology, technology and social change" where he posted articles about agriculture, economics, and technology, and even English translations of popular Filipino songs until 2019.[10]

Information technology and intellectual property rights

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In 1986 after the People Power Revolution, Verzola established the Andromeda Bulletin Board System (BBS) that allowed users to send and receive messages from one another on an online bulletin board through workstations installed in the buildings of the Senate and the House of Representatives.[11] He also made Green Net, a non-profit internet service provider available to local non-government organizations.[12]

From 1992 to 2000, he operated EMail Center, an E-mail service for Philippine non-governmental organizations where at some point he served as its President.[13] He was also the coordinator of Interdoc, which helped NGOs analyse new information technologies, the emergence of a global information economy, and the impacts on developing countries.[14] He was an advocate of open software and knowledge, and criticized U.S. intellectual property rights in his writing.[15]

Verzola was one of the conveners of Halalang Marangal or HALAL, which advocated for clean and honest elections.[16]

Environmentalism and renewable energy

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An advocate of renewable energy, Verzola fought against the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant in the 1980s.[17] In 2001, he was secretary-general of the Philippine Greens and focused on genetic engineering, agriculture, and environment issues.[18] An advocate against the commercialization of crops, he staged a month-long hunger strike at the front gates of the Department of Agriculture to protest the introduction of BT corn, a genetically-modified crop.[6]

In 2015, he helped found the non-profit organization Center for Renewable Energy Systems and Sustainable Technology (CREST), a not-for-profit organization focusing on climate and green energy.[19]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Go, Miriam Grace (2020-05-06). "Roberto Verzola, 'Father of Philippine email,' dies". RAPPLER. Retrieved 2024-12-15.
  2. ^ Verzola, Roberto (2004). Towards a Political Economy of Information: Studies on the Information Economy. Foundation for Nationalist Studies. ISBN 978-971-8741-24-5.
  3. ^ Verzola, Roberto (2015). Crossing Over: The Energy Transition to Renewable Electricity. Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. ISBN 978-971-535-038-9.
  4. ^ Aranas, Jhian. "Roberto "Obet" Verzola, in memoriam". ICSC | Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities. Retrieved 2024-12-15.
  5. ^ Go, Miriam Grace (2020-05-06). "Roberto Verzola, 'Father of Philippine email,' dies". RAPPLER. Retrieved 2024-12-15.
  6. ^ a b "Father of RP email, 67". University of the Philippines Diliman. 2020-05-08. Retrieved 2024-12-15.
  7. ^ "Lest We Forget — Roberto S. Verzola | libcom.org". libcom.org. Retrieved 2024-12-15.
  8. ^ "OII | Oxford Internet Institute (OII) welcomes its first Civil Society Practitioners from the Global South as Academic Visitors". www.oii.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2024-12-15.
  9. ^ Jr, Robert JA Basilio (2020-05-07). "Roberto Verzola, PH Internet pioneer and activist, dies at 67". Newsbytes.PH. Retrieved 2024-12-15.
  10. ^ "Ecology, technology and social change". Ecology, technology and social change. Retrieved 2024-12-15.
  11. ^ Jr, Robert JA Basilio (2020-05-07). "Roberto Verzola, PH Internet pioneer and activist, dies at 67". Newsbytes.PH. Retrieved 2024-12-15.
  12. ^ Alternatives (FMA), Foundation for Media (2020-05-09). "The one and only Obet". Foundation for Media Alternatives. Retrieved 2024-12-15.
  13. ^ "In Progress - Women in Action 2002-2 - Internet Cafes: Cennectivity for the Masses?". feministarchives.isiswomen.org. Retrieved 2024-12-15.
  14. ^ "Roberto Verzola". feministarchives.isiswomen.org. Retrieved 2024-12-15.
  15. ^ "In Progress - Women in Action 1998-2 - It's only piracy if you're poor". feministarchives.isiswomen.org. Retrieved 2024-12-15.
  16. ^ "A proposal for clean elections". The Pcij Blog. 08-22-2006. Retrieved 12-15-2024. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |access-date= and |date= (help)
  17. ^ Macaraeg, Aaron (2020-10-06). "Anti-mining community, Gina Lopez awarded as heroes for the environment". Bulatlat. Retrieved 2024-12-15.
  18. ^ "Roberto Verzola". feministarchives.isiswomen.org. Retrieved 2024-12-15.
  19. ^ ALPHAsolar1. "ABOUT US". CREST. Retrieved 2024-12-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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